Re: What happens to CLX?

siegfriedn wrote:
>
> Jeff Overcash (TeamB) wrote:
> >
> >
> > It is no rumor that currently there is no active development of Kylix by
> > Borland. It is also no rumor that Borland is working with some individuals on
> > the community Kylix project (or something close to that name). It is also not a
> > rumor that that project has gotten off to a very slow start mainly due to
> > licensing issues. Also no rumor that there will be no Kylix development this
> > year.
>
> If there are no rumors then howcome Borland is still selling Kylix?

Because it would be senseless for them to not accept money if people want to
give it to them for a product that hasn't seen an update in years?

> Surely they should take it off the market in this case!?

Why? What sense does it make from Borland's standpoint. It costs them nothing
unless there has to be another production run for CDs. Since sales have never
been great for Kylix I doubt that that would be the case. If they have CDs they
might as well sell them.

> At least make a
> public anouncement - tell their customers what their plans are and stop
> misleading it's customers.

They have. I'm sorry you didn't see them, but everything I stated above comes
from a Borland representative. Mostly at last years BorCon.

>
> >
> >
> > But it did not result in an increase in registered Kylix products. I'm sorry,
> > but if people were buying D7 because of Kylix and installing it and not taking
> > the 30 seconds it takes to register to let Borland know they were using Kylix
>
> ok, we all know there are definitely more than 2 Kylix developers on
> this planet. Do you know how many developers registered the Kylix Open
> edition?

Borland knows how many downloaded. They also know how many registered. They
also know how many people actually bought Kylix. You do realize that Borland is
in business to make money, not give away their product right? If the free
downloads did not turn into money then it was a waste of time on Borland's
part. Eventually people have to pay money for Kylix if Kylix is supposed to
continue. They didn't (in enough volume to count) so in essence Kylix is on the
shelf until something in the market place changes.

> Not the millions Borland was hoping for? How naive :(

Borland was never expecting millions. There weren't even a million Linux
developers in 2001. There weren't even 100,000. Last estimate I saw still only
puts the Linux developer market between 250,000 and 500,000. Not very big
unless you can dominate it, and there is no evidence at all the the strongly
C/C++ Linux developer community wants an ObjectPascal RAD tool so you are
looking at moving new developers into that market.

>
> >John Kaster very clearly stated on these groups
> > that they can tell the difference between D7 only and D7 + Kylix purchasers
> > based on registration of Kylix. At least D7 Kylix version registrations would
> > have been an indication that the market might have life, but that didn't give
> > them any indication either.
>
> That may be so, but it is still not a complete indication of the
> ultimate potential. As I wrote in another post to this thread,
> companies invest a lot of money in their source code - they need to know
> the code would be portable to other platforms when the need arrises.
> Kylix was such a door for Delphi developers. Perhaps if the CLX was more
> compatible with the VCL and better supported by Borland the Kylix
> registrations would have been much much higher. Again Borland should
> look at itself and not the community for the lack of Kylix registrations.
>

Borland is a publicly traded company they have to do what is best for the
stockholder. Which also is usually good for the average customer if you really
think about it, if no one buys your product then the company loses money and the
stock price drops. Sell product (usually requires a degree of customer
satisfaction to do this over any long period of time) and you make a profit and
stock price goes up.

The simple fact is, Kylix did not generate enough revenue to justify its
continued development. If it did, or even if it showed strong growth, no
company would do what Borland has done with it, which is basically put it on the
shelf and wait and see if the Linux market ever develops.

> Is Borland to let it's customers down? Borland does a lot of good work,
> but it's goodwill is eroding fast. :(

Borland would erode its goodwill even more by diverting expenses from a good
money maker like Delphi in favor of a poor revenue generator like Kylix. When a
product loses money another product has to make up for that if a company expects
to be profitable. As a Delphi user I am actually glad that they have decided to
shut down active development of Kylix in favor of concentrating on Delphi. When
the market dictates that Kylix can live on its own legs then it should be
resumed, not before IMO.

>
> In a nutshell, I would say most Delphi developers looked at Kylix and
> were glad that it was there, but when they learned about the IDE
> instabilities, CLX incompatibilities with the VCL and lack of Borland
> commitment and communication they got cold feet.

Most? There is absolutely no evidence at all that most even cared about Kylix.
Actually on these newsgroup there was a lot of anger at Borland diverting
resources to Kylix and delaying D6 back then. You'd have a hard time justifying
most since most implies > 50%.

> The steep learning
> curve to learn a new OS could have scared many away too.

That hasn't changed has it? So why would people start buying Kylix now if they
developed it? The same problems that existed 5 years ago still exist in the
Linux world.

> I think most
> Delphi developers would still want a mature Kylix if ever it arrives..
> Unfortunately we know Borland does not want to invest in manpower to
> bring Kylix up to date.
>
> Those of us who use Kylix regularly know how useful it can be..

Too bad that is such a small group. Borland has publicly stated that Kylix had
low sales. They have also said that the registration numbers were also low.
Unless you have evidence to prove that Borland is lying, I'll take the word of
the people who actually have access to these figures to someone like you who can
only give your uninformed opinion.


--
Jeff Overcash (TeamB) On waves of silver I dreamed of gold
(Please do not email 'Till I lost the peace that dreaming gives
me directly unless I dreamed of the moment of my own death
asked. Thank You) That no one ever dreams and lives (Marillion)
.

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